This application bases its priority on Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/024,450 which was filed on Aug. 27, 1996.
This invention pertains to the printing of booklets of bingo sheets. However, it should be appreciated by those of average skill in the art that the method and apparatus disclosed herein could also be employed for printing a variety of other types of printed matter including checks, business forms or advertising brochures.
Bingo is a game of chance that is becoming increasingly popular throughout the world. The most popular form of bingo played in the United States consists of a 5.times.5 matrix of numbers with each column of numbers listed under a letter of the word "BINGO" printed at the top of the page. There are 75 numbers that may be used in the game. Under the letter "B", five unique numbers from 1 through 15 may be listed. Under the letter "I", five unique numbers from 16 through 30 may be listed. Under the letter "N", four unique numbers from 31 through 45 may be listed. The center space of the matrix which falls under the "N" column is usually designated as a free space in the play of the game. Under the letter "G", five unique numbers from 46 through 60 may be listed. Under the letter "O", five unique numbers from 61 through 75 may be listed. The game is played by filling a prescribed pattern on the bingo face by marking the randomly generated numbers called from the 75 number series. The first person to fill the pattern and to call "BINGO" wins the game.
Previously the game of bingo was played on what was termed "hard cards". These were bingo faces printed on a cardboard substrate. Each card usually contained one bingo face and was reusable. Play usually consisted of placing a plastic marker on each number that was called on the card until the game was completed by someone winning. The markers would then be cleared from the card and the same card or cards would be used for the following game. The bingo players would play the same cards for all the games of the session. The cards were costly to purchase, required maintenance, retrieval, storage, needed frequent replacement, and provided a limited number of bingo faces.
It has now become popular in the playing of bingo to purchase a booklet of bingo sheets each sheet of which has one or more bingo faces printed thereon. These booklets consist of multiple sheets of bingo paper, one stacked upon the other, with the paper sheets being removably secured at one edge to form a booklet. The number of sheets in a booklet is indicated by the term "up." Thus a 10 up booklet means a booklet having ten sheets. Each sheet typically contains a number of bingo faces indicated by the term "on." These can range from a 1 ON to a 36 ON or more. When players enter the bingo hall they may purchase one or more booklets. Each booklet contains one sheet for each game of the evening. The player will then play all of the bingo faces on the first sheet for the first game and mark these faces with a translucent marker, or ink dauber, as each of the numbers is called. Once a winner is declared and the game is over, the player removes the top sheet from the booklet and plays the next game on the following sheet. The marked first sheet is discarded.
With the popularity of bingo growing, the number of players has increased dramatically. Each player may use twelve, eighteen or more bingo faces simultaneously. As a result a bingo hall operator can use 9,000 or more bingo faces in a single game. State of the art communication techniques such as television satellite links may now join many bingo halls together for a combined bingo session. This further increases the potential number of bingo faces played in a single game to 120,000 or more.
In each bingo game, it is highly desirable that each of the players have unique bingo faces on their sheets in order to reduce the possibility that more than one person would win at the same time by having the identical bingo face. Therefore, it is desirable to be able to print a large number of different bingo faces on bingo sheets in order to reduce the occurrence of prize-splitting.
The current process for printing bingo paper usually requires the use of a web printing press that contains a series of standard and, in some cases, proprietary printing units that combine to print the indicia, audit numbers, serial numbers, wax bars, and bingo faces on a web of paper. On these presses the bingo face printing unit consists of an inking system that wets a series of bingo face plates mounted on a continuous belt. When brought into contact with the paper web routed over the unit impression cylinder, the continuous belt transfers the image of the bingo faces onto the paper web. The number of unique bingo faces printed by this system is limited by the length of the continuous belt. For handling purposes and functionality, modern belt systems will accept a belt length that will hold approximately 9000 unique bingo faces which is the accepted industry standard set. If larger numbers of unique bingo faces are required to satisfy the requirements of a game, sets are printed separately using different 9000 face bingo belts and then combined by hand in a process that is termed set collation. This is a time-consuming and labor-intensive process.
Accordingly, it is desirable to develop a new and improved method and apparatus for printing large numbers of bingo faces which would overcome the foregoing difficulties and others while providing better and more advantageous overall results.